Terminology: A "flight" of wines

[MsRamsey]

Does anyone know where this term comes from?

[Craig Camp]

I believe it relates to a 'flight of stairs' - each wine being one step.

WARNING: this comes from a fuzzy memory from a tasting many decades ago. I do not bet the farm on the accuracy of this statement.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Just curious about this point: why do we call a group of wines for tasting a "flight"?

I was reading this term regarding teas, which led back to wines, and to this forum, because it isn't a term that comes to mind when I think of teas, or wines.

[beef_and_burgundy]

The term 'flight' has been used to describe series of things for at least 300 years. So as far as the etymology goes, it's probably (though I'm not certain) no more than an industry adopting that specific term through common agreement.

Interestingly, the Oxford English Dictionary have recently included an entry pertaining to the specific use of 'flight' in the context of food and wine. Currently the earliest noted mention of the term is from the NY Times in 1978.

[Wholemeal Crank]

I don't have access to the OED until I go back to work tomorrow: do you happen to remember what the earlier citations were referring to, before the flights of wine entry?

[Alcuin]

The OED doesn't seem to solve the problem. Here's the series oriented OED definition (all other definitions have something to do with things flying/moving:

7. a. The series of stairs between any two landings; hence a series of steps, terraces, etc., ascending without change of direction. [so F. volée.]

b. A series of locks on a canal, rising like steps one above the other.

c. A set of rails or hurdles. [Possibly a distinct word, repr. OE. fleohta, = Ger. flechte hurdle.]

Here's a special addition to the definition "flight" that OED doesn't connect to any other sense:

DRAFT ADDITIONS DECEMBER 2008

flight, n.1

A selection of small portions of a particular type of food or drink, esp. wine, intended to be tasted together for the purpose of comparison.

1978 N.Y. Times 29 Mar. C17/2 There were four flights of wines, as they say in the trade, four spätleses, four ausleses,..[etc.]. 1983 Washington Post (Nexis) 14 Dec. E1 They turned the dinner into a smoked salmon tasting... Each flight of the tasting was garnished differently. 1997 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 17 June (Good Living) 2 An inviting line-up of the famous single malt whiskeys available in tasting flights. 2005 L. L. NARLOCK & N. GARFINKEL Wine Lover's Guide Wine Country 151 The tasting bar offers three to six flights of wine in several categories: classic, prestige, all white, and all red.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Seems like the stairs may be the best explanation, put more clearly in a blog posting here:

"the term "flight" in the French language is"escale". Like a flight of stairs, wine Judges use this phrase in reference to the arrangements in coordinating a tasting, predicated on the Bordeaux classification of 1865. As it would be "unfair" to compare a "lesser" properties' Claret to a "Superiore" First Growth, the tastings would start with the lighter wines and escalate to the rankings of each level or "growth"."